“Does what goes on inside show on the outside? Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney.”

Many people shy away from making and sharing this kind of art — the kind that truly shows what's on the inside — because it involves a significant risk; a risk of rejection, scrutiny, or criticism of that which is inside one's soul.

But if you want to make truly great art, it's the risk you have to take. You have to show the fire in your soul and be willing to receive the varied responses of those who encounter it.

Are you willing to take the risk?

Learn more about that letter here. And see if anything strikes you as it did for me.